Enigmatic and sexy, Professor Gabriel Emerson is a well-respected Dante specialist by day, but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure. He uses his notorious good looks and sophisticated charm to gratify his every whim, but is secretly tortured by his dark past and consumed by the profound belief that he is beyond all hope of redemption. When the sweet and innocent Julia Mitchell enrolls as his graduate student, his attraction and mysterious connection to her not only jeopardizes his career, but sends him on a journey in which his past and his present collide.

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Publisher's Summary

From national best-selling author Sylvain Reynard comes the haunting, unforgettable tale of one man’s salvation and one woman’s sensual awakening....

Enigmatic and sexy, Professor Gabriel Emerson is a well-respected Dante specialist by day, but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure. He uses his notorious good looks and sophisticated charm to gratify his every whim, but is secretly tortured by his dark past and consumed by the profound belief that he is beyond all hope of redemption.

When the sweet and innocent Julia Mitchell enrolls as his graduate student, his attraction and mysterious connection to her not only jeopardizes his career, but sends him on a journey in which his past and his present collide.

An intriguing and sinful exploration of seduction, forbidden love, and redemption, Gabriel’s Inferno is a captivating and wildly passionate tale of one man’s escape from his own personal hell as he tries to earn the impossible - forgiveness and love.

I get angst. I get emotional conflict. I can even almost get that there are more than four people on earth under the age of 40 that are obsessed with Dante's Divine Comedy.

What I don't get is how a book can be written with such stilted, unnatural and totally unrealistic dialog. Nobody talks this way.

I also don't get how the reader is supposed to relate to such caricatures of real people. The hero's amoral past sounds awfully tame compared to the typical 20 something single guy. Certainly not a past that should cripple a man. And in spite of evidently being a sex and coke addict and a drunk he manages to get his doctorate degree and become a noted expert and sought after speaker on the subject of Dante.

And the heroine has so little backbone it is a wonder she is able to stand. She comes across as such a nonentity I don't know how anyone would ever even notice her enough to fall in love with her. If I were her friend I would constantly find myself slapping her and saying "Snap Out of It, for Christ's sake and grow some ..."

The Vermont farmboy/scholar who secretly loves the heroine from afar would be an even worse love interest than the hero. He is too good, too sympathetic, too understanding and too dull to pay any attention to.

And finally the premise is just plain silly. She goes to school in Toronto to see the man she has sworn to love forever and when he doesn't remember her she is either too shy or too stupid to remind him of who she is. Although the part about him not remembering her was totally believable. She isn't worth remembering.

This book is overflowing with unbelievable characters and premises that are so chock full of angst-ridden emotion and so sacchariny sweet my teeth hurt.

The only good thing I can say is the two main characters deserve each other. They can go off and bore each other silly for the rest of their lives, emoting endlessly yet saying nothing. I just wish they would put the rest of us out of their misery.

And I am really, really, really tired of all of this lower lip biting heroines seem to be doing lately. It is over done.

I enjoyed this book. Sometimes I grow impatient with timid characters like Julia. She cowered and trembled a few too many pages for my taste; but still, I remained in her corner throughout the story. Plenty of angst and tortured souls. If you're not a fan of heavy literature, some of the exchanges and references are a bit pretentious, but are necessary to reveal the inner workings of Gabriel's mind . These conversations reveal the musings of two brilliant but socially challenged individuals who have, thus far, lived very sad lives.

Anyone with a family will appreciate the imperfect and absolutely realistic characterizations of family relationships. There's a dad who can still give his adult children a scolding..and they still know they have to listen.

Be prepared..there is a sequel. This story comes to a conclusion..sort of. There are many loose threads remaining. A couple of the supporting characters were more engaging than the hero and heroine, in my opinion. All the ingredients for a series.

The performance was pleasant, although the sound of the narrator's voice and his speech patterns sound a lot like H.A.L. (2001 A Space Odyssey). Once it occurred to me who the narrator's voice resembled, it made me giggle and was somewhat distracting from time to time, but that's my problem, not the book's.

This may sound like a negative critique, but revealing my list of positives will give away too much. All in all, worth the credit, but I will likely read something a little sunnier before returning for the sequel. Something sans Dante.

When you prepare to dedicate over 20 hrs (or even 10 if you double speed it) of you life to listening to a book it is a bit daunting but the hours just flew by as I got drawn into the sweet and torturous love story between Gabriel and Julia. The story is completely set around their budding and blossoming romance but somehow it isn't boring and, due to the brilliant writing, it totally works.

Worth a credit? I couldn't stop listening - so that's a definite YES and I'm now downloading Book 2 Gabriel's Rapture.

If you could sum up Gabriel's Inferno in three words, what would they be?

Perfect mix of pure fun and truly thought provoking, A masterpiece!

Any additional comments?

I thoroughly enjoyed listening .My only minor complaint it is ,when the narrator continues to read a supplementary information placed in parenthesis ,to emphasize the actions or a situations, instead of interpreting them.I would like this to be fixed if it is possible .

More kissy than kinky. Let's face it, I read a lot of smut, and the naughtier the better. This, in my mind, does not really qualify as erotic. The story was okay, the characters a little too whiney and broken for me, and the sex was...well....fankly... a little boring.

If 50 shades was too risque for you, then this will be right up your alley.

There is the threat of a D/s scene, but it never really happens, you know, because her love fixes him. ( sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit). If you like your smut charcter driven (and I do occassionally assuming I like the characters) it's not too bad.

While searching for something to follow 50 shades, but written better, I saw several references to this book and its sequel…so NOT what I thought it would be. I will admit that the story was theoretically sweet, with more mature references to fine art and adult romance, but the story seemed to go on forever, and was totally unbelievable in spots with characters going against their core nature for no specific reason other than it continued the plot. I was looking for the hotness I got in fifty shades, and got hours upon hours of BORING drab. I listened to this book and its sequel, not wanting to be one of those people that rated a book without listening to it fully, and I found both to be VERY lacking. If you want a follow up to 50 try “Bared to You” by Sylvia Day, “Beautiful Disaster” by Jamie McGuire, “Thoughtless” by SC Stephens and Olivia Cunnings “Sinners on Tour”, don’t get these books.

My dictionary describes melodrama as: A sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions. That's this book in a nutshell.

Why was everything so over-blown, including the narration? We're meant to believe that Gabriel is in his 30's, but the character speaks like a 50 year old. The girl has lived a racy life, but acts like a gust of wind would blow her over. Another reviewer says there's some light S/M -- the only thing I found was the sense of masochism I felt from reading it.

God, I hated this book because of what it might have been, and wasn't. I don't understand the good reviews. This was awful.

I don't even know where to begin, I just finished listening and I am completely overwhelmed. I smiled so much as I listened to this book because I was so touched by the relationship between the two lead characters. I LOVED their connection, its the stuff that really makes you want to believe in soul mates and fall in love. This book has to be one of my all time favorite romances--of my life!!! There were so many very touching moments throughout this book, I laughed, I wanted to cry at times, and probably the only negative aspect of it, is that it had to end. I am immediately going to buy the next book because I am literally addicted to the Professor. I think Gabriel (the Professor) may be the best male lead character I've ever had the pleasure of 'getting to know'--and I think I may be in love with him!! Excellent story, ridiculously fabulous narration/narrator--he should get an award--totally worth whatever the cost is and/or credit worthy.

Oh, so many things... I found the heroine exasperating and unconvincing (gods of romance, please, please let her grow a spine). The character of the antihero unfortunately garnered neither depth nor dimension from his prenchant for whores or evident foot fetish. The narration was flat, uninspired, and quite painfully s-l-o-w. Frequently pubescent and demeaning imagery, particularly with reference to the heroine (alternately likenened to either a "little kitten" or rabbit) was the final straw.

Has Gabriel's Inferno turned you off from other books in this genre?

Most probably.

What didn’t you like about John Morgan’s performance?

Why would Mr. Morgan choose to s-l-o-w down a project which he so obviously did not enjoy? Listening was nearly painful. I did try "2X"ing the speed, but it wasn't enough to get me through even half of the book.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Irritation and disappointment, I wanted it to be so much more than it actually was.

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